Seldom Balanced – Usually Fair
From Dr. Arif Ahmad at The Moderate Voice:
Recently someone I know approached me with his experience of being at the receiving end of the Me Too Movement, an experience which devastated his life as he felt wrongly accused. I do not know the merits of the case, but it did get me thinking some.
Me Too Movement, is real and here to stay and has brought with a lot of virtue, awareness, and justice. There may however be another edge to this sword.
From The Journal of Improbable Research:
Philosophical disagreements on possible reason(s) ‘Why Flatulence is Funny’ – Professor Sellmaier v. Professor Spiegel
If you want a reliable method of raising laugh, you can always resort to references of flatulence – a comedic ploy that goes back (at least) 2000 years. But the question as to why it’s considered funny, remains, to this day, a hotly debated subject.
In 2013, Professor James Spiegel of the Philosophy Department at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, US, took a stab at explaining the phenomenon in issue 35 of the journal ‘Think’ (a journal of The Royal Institute of Philosophy, UK)
From Frances Langum:
Candace Owens hosts a “conference” to celebrate Black people “exiting” the Democratic Party — and the audience is overwhelmingly white people. Of course.
So Fox News personality Candace Owens held an event in Los Angeles over the weekend to encourage “Blexit,” black voters exiting the Democratic Party.
The name “Blexit” is in dispute, however, as a liberal group lays claim to the name dating back to 2016.
Notice something about the Los Angeles/Candace Owens attendees?
From Derek H. Alderman, University of Tennessee, at The Daily Beast:
Many of the activists with whom I have spoken view King streets as a way to carry on King’s unfinished work to create racial equality and economic justice in the U.S.
Greater visibility, they argue, can communicate the legitimacy of King’s message. More streets named after the civil rights leader, especially in prominent parts of town, can help educate a wider white public of the relevance and resonance of civil rights and black historical contributions.
Some cities honor King with important thoroughfares that connect a variety of neighborhoods. These include Albuquerque, Austin, New Bern in North Carolina, Oakland-North Berkeley, Savannah and Tampa.
However, public opposition over the past half century has led most cities to rename smaller streets or portions of roads located entirely within poor African-American neighborhoods. Opponents tend to be white business and property owners on affected roads. In public, most cite concerns over cost and inconvenience. Some suggest the association with King’s name will stigmatize their neighborhood.
From John Pavlovitz:
Everyone, the Vice President is offended.
In the wake of the response to the news that his wife Karen, is working for a school that excludes both LGBTQ students and staff members, Mike Pence let us all know, with characteristic detached, tongue clicking condescension—that he is disappointed and disturbed by it all.
“Major news organizations attacking Christian education is deeply offensive to us.” he chided.
Is it?
As a Christian and a pastor, Mike Pence is offensive to me.
From The Onion:
“For an extra $8.99 per month, you’ll have an all-access pass to the AOC Zone, which features wall-to-wall coverage of every word Ocasio-Cortez utters, as well as in-depth analysis of her wardrobe and any videos we’re able to dig up from her college days,” said Fox spokesperson Avery Mattison, adding that the new channel will include uninterrupted live footage of the 29-year-old representative every time she appears in public, along with nonstop commentary from a 12-person panel of experts.
From Jonathan Bernstein:
If Trump’s explicit claim of responsibility isn’t enough, then surely his opposition to the Democrats’ bills aimed at keeping the lights on while negotiations continue is a pretty clear indication that he wants the shutdown. And presumably he wants it because he thinks it will increase his negotiating leverage.
Trouble is, Trump and other Republicans who want the shutdown should also be those who want it to be painful, and they should be emphasizing how terrible the consequences of a closed government can be. If the reason for shutting down the government is to win leverage, then embrace it.
But that’s not what’s happening. Democrats are the ones constantly emphasizing the suffering of government workers either furloughed or working without pay, of government contractors who won’t get paid, and how everyone else is losing out, too. Trump and his administration that are downplaying the effects. But if they are correct, then why should Democrats accept a worse deal than the one they had already negotiated back when they didn’t yet have a House majority?
The answer might be that the side that caused government closures is always going to be the one that takes more blame for the effects. If that’s the case, however, it’s a good reason to never shut down the government as a negotiating ploy, because it’s certain to backfire.
From Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson:
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has a reputation as an anti-immigration absolutist. That’s actually the kinder description of him. Somebody should have told King that it’s better to be thought a racist than to open his mouth and remove all doubt.
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” Mr. King told the New York Times. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
When King was finally punished by his GOP colleagues and removed from his committee assignments, the Iowa congressman tried to defend himself by claiming Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was committing an “unprecedented assault” on King’s “freedom of speech” (it’s not) and that King’s quote is being taken out of context.
Yes, the New York Times should release the audio of the interview so the public can judge King’s intent, but it was King himself who placed Western Civilization in the context of the other two racist terms. And if King wants to talk about context, it’s his past actions of cozying up to racists and praising them that are providing the context for his latest statement.
What’s been disappointing to me personally is how some Republicans are running to King’s defense.
From Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post:
California Senator Kamala Harris has correctly labeled this “Trump’s Vanity Shutdown” and she has nailed it. Trump, of course, is ever dismissive of reality and has chosen once again to lie and to blame Democrats for it all – which is not only reckless and irresponsible, but completely ludicrous, too! Long time conservatives and staunch Republicans like Bill Kristol, George F. Will, and Nicolle Wallace have all left this now Trump-dominated Republican Party and are not looking back. The man has been a wrecking ball to future electoral hopes they may have once held.
Though a few congressional Republicans have expressed disagreement with Trump’s action, their numbers remain small.
From Infidel753:
Nan’s Notebook has a post up on a question Christians sometimes pose to atheists: “What if you’re wrong?” It’s basically a reformulation of Pascal’s wager — if you live your life as an atheist and die as one, only to find God waiting to judge you in the afterlife, you’ll feel pretty foolish (and doomed), won’t you?
Follow the link above to see other readers’ answers. Here’s mine.
If it turns out that the universe is, in fact, ruled by some kind of all-powerful petty tyrant who will consign me to torture for all eternity because I couldn’t believe a bunch of ludicrously-implausible stories which all available evidence shows to be just one more random mythology like hundreds of others, regardless of all the good I’ve done during my life, then I guess I’m just shit out of luck. I don’t see any point in worrying about it because there’s nothing I can do about it. I don’t have the power to make myself believe things that are utterly unbelievable, any more than a Christian could psych himself into believing in Vishnu or Zeus when he simply sees no reason to believe in those entities. And there’s no point in trying to fake it. Pretending to believe might fool people, but it wouldn’t fool an omniscient deity.
And that’s another problem.